Just as Vineyard Wind 1 announced that construction was finally done after a decade of political debates and hard work, the company has filed a lawsuit against the wind farm’s central contractor, GE Vernova, after the energy company threatened to walk away from the project.
The issue at the center of this latest skirmish for the controversial energy project is what GE Vernova said are $300 million in payments withheld by Vineyard Wind. But Vineyard Wind insists they don’t owe the energy company any payment. In fact, they said after the blade failure in July 2024 caused a two-year construction delay, GE Vernova owes them funds that surpass the payments withheld. This raises the spectre of what Vineyard Wind claims and what is ominously phrased in court documents as the potential of a “dormant wind farm graveyard.”
The offshore wind farm is located 15 miles south of the Island, and announced in March that the construction phase was complete, more than a decade after the lease area for the project was awarded in 2015. It was a long-awaited and hard-earned achievement, made even longer and harder by several recent roadblocks set in place by the federal government.
And just as the project saw the light at the end of the tunnel and was on the verge of what’s called “commercial operation,” when the farm could generate electricity for sale at a fixed price, the unexpected happened.
In court documents, Vineyard Wind said its “most important contractor,” energy equipment manufacturer and services company GE Vernova, threatened to abandon the project “on the eve of completion,” or by April 28, because of withheld payments; GE Vernova sent the wind farm developer a termination notice at the end of February. Court documents from a lawsuit filed by Vineyard Wind against GE Vernova said this would doom the project to failure.
“[GE Vernova] walking away threatens the project’s very survival,” the lawsuit reads.
In a motion dated April 8, Vineyard Wind attorney Jack Pirozzolo filed for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order. Separately, the company filed for a more permanent judgment, but currently wants immediate relief on or before April 27 to prevent the contractor from leaving; there is a hearing scheduled for April 16 at the Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston.
GE Vernova is the manufacturer of the Haliade-X blades used for the project, and recently finished installation of the 62 turbines. It was one of its 351-foot blades that fractured off in July 2024, scattered debris across New England shores, and halted progress on the project for six months; blades had to be replaced on a third of the turbines. GE Vernova was sued by the town of Nantucket after the blade failure, and eventually settled for $10.5 million.
The contractor asserted that it hadn’t been paid in 18 months, hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of work, and threatened to terminate agreements signed back in June 2021.
“Unfortunately, Vineyard Wind has chosen to withhold payments for more than 18 months, totaling more than $300 million, for work performed. Consequently, GE Vernova exercised its contractual right to terminate the ongoing project agreements for nonpayment,” a spokesperson for GE Vernova said in a statement to The Times. “The company remains committed to the safety of the wind farm, and stands by our performance and our contractual obligations. We will vigorously defend our position through the appropriate legal process.”
But Vineyard Wind said in the lawsuit that the claim is “frivolous” and “defies the plain language of the contracts.” Attorneys for the developer argue that Vineyard Wind “owes nothing” because GE Vernova “caused catastrophic injury” when the contractor installed 68 defective blades on 25 turbines that resulted in a two-year delay and more than a billion dollars in damages.
Vineyard Wind’s attorneys said that GE Vernova actually owes the company $853 million in claims, mostly from the blade defects. The claims amount was determined by a project engineer appointed under the 2021 agreement to “impartially resolve claims” between the two companies.
Though turbine installation is over, Vineyard Wind needs GE Vernova to use “unique and irreplaceable proprietary technology and tools” so that the turbines can produce power at a commercially viable level, the lawsuit said; as of April 8, all turbines weren’t fully operational, and produced power “at levels well below those intended” based on power purchase agreements signed by Massachusetts electricity distribution companies and Vineyard Wind. The fulfillment of the power purchase agreements is what could lower energy costs for Massachusetts ratepayers.
The turbines also need “regular specialized maintenance,” and the lawsuit said that the $1.3 billion contract obligates GE Vernova to maintain and service the turbines for five years of operation and guarantee the turbines operate at 97 percent “production availability.”
GE Vernova has until April 15 to respond to the complaint.